Hot New Notebooks Shine in Vegas

Dells' Adamo notebook —"Adamo" is Latin for "to fall in love"--marks the company's entry into the premium notebook market, and was designed with an eye on aesthetics. Instead of a plastic case, Dell opted for a milled metal case that comes in two color options: a light metallic gray called "pearl" and a black color dubbed "onyx." Case made of milled metal. This 13.3-inch notebook is set to officially debut during the first half of the year. Dell has yet to release any further details to the press, but states that more information will be made public as the Adamo's launch approaches.

While it is not a brand new product, Asus' Bamboo Series notebook caught our eye, nonetheless, and fits in perfectly with the green theme of the show . This Core 2 Duo-based notebook features an 11.1-inch LCD display with efficient LED backlighting. Its most eye-catching aspect is its case made of bamboo, a sustainable, environmentally-friendly building material.

The Asus S121 is a 12-inch ultraportable notebook based on a 1.33 GHz Atom processor ans is a larger variant of the 10-inch S101 netbook. The S121 weighs around 3 pounds, is an inch thick and sports an attractive design. The S121's highlight? You can order one with a spacious 512 GB solid-state drive can for $1650. It should ship early this year.

Dell's new Studio XPS notebooks come in two screen sizes: 13 inches and 16 inches. The 16-inch version sports a full HD resolution of 1920-by-1080, while the 13-inch model offers a hybrid-SLI option which can simultaneously make use of both an integrated motherboard graphics card and a discrete GPU. Both models include backlit keyboards, and are WiMax- and GPS-ready. A wide array of ports are available, including Firewire, HDMI, DisplayPort, and eSATA. Both models are available now, and start at $1200.

Asus brings touch to its Eee PC line of netbooks with the Eee PC T91. This 1.33 GHz Atom-based netbook's marquis feature is its 8.9-inch touchscreen. As an added bonus, the screen can swivel, allowing you to use the T91 as a small tablet PC. The Eee PC T91 should be available in March for about $500.

Lenovo's entertainment- oriented IdeaPad Y650 comes equipped with a high-definition 16-inch display with 16:9 aspect ratio and Dolby Surround speakers and subwoofer. At 5.5 pounds the Y650 is reasonably light, and its trackpad is large. This stylish series of notebooks sport a white palmrest and screen bezel, and a black top case made of rubberized plastic. A model with a gray palmrest will debut in March. It also comes with a full suite of connectors including HDMI and eSATA. The Y650 comes standard with a DVD burner, but a Blu-ray player option can be had, with a Blu-ray burner option in the future. The IdeaPad Y650 is out now and prices start at $1200.

An upcoming big brother to Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 is the Mini 10. This model sports a 10-inch screen capable of displaying 720p high-definition video and a nice sized keyboard - keys are slightly larger than Mini 9. The Mini 10 also features a new trackpad that forgoes the buttons altogether; instead, the entire trackpad serves as a button, much like Apple's latest MacBooks.

The MSI U120 is a 10-inch netbook based around a 1.6 GHz Atom processor weighing approximately 2.2 pounds. This netbook boasts a backlit trackpad, 1GB of memory (expandable to 2 GB), and an expandable hard drive options up to 320GB. Estimated retail price is between $350 and $400.

The MSI's X320 notebook may look like MacBook Air clone, but the price is nice - it's $1,000 cheaper. The X320 sports a 1.33 GHz Atom processor instead of the Core 2 Duo. The 13.4-inch notebook weighs in at around 3 pounds and has an 8-cell battery option that gives it up to 10 hours of run time, according to MSI. The X320 will start at $800 and should be available this spring.

Sony's Vaio P is one of the stars of CES so far. This tiny Atom-based notebook weighs only 1.4 pounds and sports an extra-wide 8-inch LED-backlit display with a mind-boggling 1600-by-768 resolution. With its integrated EVDO networking through Verizon, The Vaio P offers an always-on Internet connection. The Vaio P also includes a GPS module that does not require an Internet connection for those times when you need a little direction but can't get online. Oh, and it runs Windows Vista. The Vaio P carries a suggested retail price of $900 and will be available starting later this month at SonyStyle stores, and elsewhere next month.